Violence and Crime

Why does the United States have more crime than many other parts of the world? The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population and about 56-60% of the illicit drug users. In some cities more than 50% of crimes are committed by criminals high on pot. Marijuana is the drug most frequently connected to crime.

Stopping youthful usage of pot will go a long way to making a safer, less violent society! #Futures Without Violence and #PreventChildAbuseAmerica, the United States will not make progress to end child abuse and domestic violence unless we end drug usage, beginning with marijuana. Pot is involved in many child abuse deaths because users become psychotic and/or violent.

An extraordinarily high percentage of murderers are pot users. It’s not always clear if this happens because of 1) pot induced-psychosis 2) inability to cope with the normal ups and downs of life because of longtime pot use or 3) the lack of empathy and numbing of the conscience caused by marijuana usage.

Sorry about not keeping up here. There are so, so many senseless, homicidal cases popping up now, all connected to past marijuana abuse (ie not necessarily while ‘high’), it’s hard to keep up. Another in Paris, another in Washington state, London, and a few others. I am hoping ANYBODY out there can see what is going on, and perhaps take the initiative in posting your findings. There should be some kind of ‘almanac’ that tabulates this astonishing correlation.

Furthermore, a lot of these incidents so weirdly seem to congregate on the third week of April- with another three or four or so to add from this year .

Anyway, here is yet another violent killing by teenagers, this time in New Jersey:

Once again with respect to the victim’s family and all who are affected, be reminded that posting this here is not for some kind of heartless agenda, but merely to present the evidence of how with homicide, marijuana is almost always is part of the equation. If we can see what’s going on, realize what might be at the core of this ongoing madness (that is we are suggesting, not proclaiming, marijuana might be the culprit), we might in the future be able to save some lives and avoid all the horror and torment associated.

Look, a minority of folks who are using drugs, visualize “demons” in their altered state of consciousness. That is, they are amplifying and intensifying anger or resentment, or hate or whatever, while high, which become fixated into the mind’s framework even when not high. Marijuana seems to be the primary drug that does this. And I think that’s probably because THC affects the amygdala which in turn regulates cognitive learning and behavior. Inhibition is lowered and new delusional thought processes become incorporated. A minority are agitated, paranoid or even schizophrenic, all of which can be the building blocks of potentially violent futures. Essentially, their brains are re-wiring (called neuro-plasticity) and adapting to these new warped perceptions that carry forward in their minds well beyond the period of intoxication.

Quote from linked article:
“Jeremiah Taylor admitted not reporting to police marijuana rolling papers he found among Taylor’s belongings in the residence he shared with McAtasney. Bauman called that “innocent concern” in his wanting to protect his son, but Doyle argued that it shows he would be willing to withhold information from police.”

“Steven Schiltz had a lengthy criminal history. … However, he also has a medical marijuana license, which he frequently consumes on a daily …”

There are many others, almost identical, that is, they have mental health issues, use marijuana regularly, have psychotic episodes at times, and sometimes they are violent. And in many cases, police must respond before they harm anyone.

I suspect too that many if not all of the tragic Black Lives Matter victims, for which there is currently much concern, are also undergoing violent, psychotic episodes derived from prolonged marijuana abuse. If ANYBODY were to look carefully into their histories, we might find out that marijuana abuse is very consistent. Perhaps there is a degree of police racism, who knows, but it would sure be nice for our society, academia, the media, the medical profession, etc, to wonder why exactly what might be the source that affects these mentally disturbed individuals. Are they born that way, and essentially ‘doomed’ throughout life, or are they inducing their psychosis via pot abuse? Or of course, bidirectional combinations thereof?

There are a lot of crazy theories out there, many of which much of society takes seriously. Like for instance this notion that immunizations can lead to autism. Okay maybe. In fact Robert Kennedy, Jr. has been chosen to lead a panel on this concern.
Though the CDC says there is no connection, yet our concerns and efforts are fair enough.

Or we get folks concerned about how plastic bags from our homes might end up in the ocean and cause environmental problems. I am not sure how someone’s plastic bag in say Redding, CA ends up in the ocean, but apparently there are enough people concerned, there is now a state ban.

Fine, but how on earth can almost all of our American society dismiss the very strong possibility that mind altering marijuana could be altering the minds of sociopaths. How can say the Tsarnaevs, who are immersed in marijuana, dealing and killing over it, even with some kind of marijuana ritual, and then later blowing up the Boston Marathon, be immune from national concern?

It’s outrageous, everything about that bombing, just like so many other mass killings (Nice, Columbine, Loughner, Holmes, Orlando, OKC, Roof, etc.) reeks of past marijuana abuse and the potential for mind derangement from it.

It could be that genetically some are more prone to aggression and violence that is normally subdued by societal upbringing. But when marijuana is used extensively, those aggressive traits exhibit themselves. That is, pot lowers the inhibition threshold as their warped ideas intensify. The handwriting is on the walls.

So just about any whacky theory can gain national attention, pique our concerns and warrant national dialogue. But NOT marijuana and the eerie link to mental derangement and sometimes homicidal tendencies.

I will present one of the craziest experiences of my life. There was a call-in radio show, and the topic was the root causes of lone wolf attackers, and senseless violence in general. So I call in to suggest the possibility that perhaps marijuana induced mental derangement might be the key factor among all the potheads who are committing atrocious crimes.

But my call is interrupted, there are commercials, and meanwhile a new guest comes on the program. He is professor from a prestigious university, which considered quite progressive.

So, the host of the radio station tells me to hold on. They ramble on and on, and then finally after an insulting near 30 minute wait, they let me talk. And ever so briefly. I ask the professor eagerly for an erudite answer. I want to know how he and others can explain the very odd correlation between marijuana abuse and killing rampages, like the Boston Marathon, the Baptist Church shooting, Aurora, etc. Basically, if they are known to be using mind altering drugs, specifically marijuana, and their minds are indeed altered, why does not society at large suspect that marijuana itself altered their minds?

Well, the professor listened carefully, and then quickly dismisses me for such a stupid question. His answer is like “Well, pot users are bound to be mellow and not aggressive.”

Now the kicker is, guess what the topic of the program had changed to when my ‘rude’ call interrupted? The very serious discussion was whether space aliens had sex! And the professor very enthusiastically elaborated on this exciting topic in full agreement that assuming space aliens existed, they indeed did have sex.

Thanks for the request and the ‘challenge’. Honestly, I looked and researched Alexandre Bissonnette (Quebec mosque attack) and Isaac Wayne Wilson (Bellevue, WA arsonist on mosque), and found nothing regarding any kind of substance abuse history with either. It’s possible it’s there and no records exist, or no one cares to report it. It’s not like law enforcement, journalists, and so forth are ever very eager about reporting any correlations. We just have to dig and hope to get lucky.

Or perhaps none exists. Bissonnette doesn’t seem like the type to me anyway, whereas Wilson seems more likely to be a drug user (including pot), mainly because he has a history of mental illness.

There’s a basic logic to all this that works in our favor. We have plenty of conformational data on so many of these sociopaths of having drug abuse histories. That the base level of certainty. Then of the rest, because of lack of data, we simply are not getting all the facts. There must exist higher percentages!

Legally, drug tests are often kept private, arrest records can be hard to come by, or in some cases simply be purged from the record. Most of academia scoffs at the notion, like we are bunch of kooks, journalists are clueless and often biased favorably for marijuana (why publish negative news about marijuana?), and often police reports describe the presence of marijuana at a crime scene as “incidental observations that have no bearing”, and so forth.

It might be enlightening for one to look at the news articles regarding the current lawsuit over the death of Richard Kirk in Colorado who reputedly ate pot candy and became instantly homicidal. Well specifically the responses and blogs below the article.
The vast majority of posters there are vehemently defensive of marijuana, and often claim Kirk was naturally homicidal anyway, and would have killed his wife regardless, even if he had not gone crazy from eating the marijuana.

If it interests anyone, a bit of research shows that the perpetrator of the recent arson attack on a mosque in Florida also has a history of marijuana use, as revealed from his past record.

An interesting reversal of terrorism, isn’t it? Still, marijuana pops up into the equation once again regardless of religious affiliation. Did his pot use contribute to his mental health problems, did pot help warp his thought processes while intensifying his fears and angers, and so forth?

It’s all right in front of us. Cannabis (and all other recreational drugs) interfere with delicate chemistry of the brain. Ramping up and subduing the balance of neurotransmitters that control our mood and behavior, lower inhibitions and so forth, might be at the core of this madness. Inquiry? Where the heck is national inquiry?

To quote John from the post below: “No ones children or family members have been harmed by marijuana so who are you representing?”

This suddenly strikes me and I am reminded of the iconic image of the fireman holding the dying baby at the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The perpetrators were said to have smoked “massive amounts of marijuana” in prior years.

What immediately comes to mind is whether their marijuana use rewired and restructured their brains enough so to the degree they felt in their deranged thoughts that expressing their anger via a terrorist act was necessary.

This is NOT unique, it’s happening all over the place. The Boston Marathon bombing, the Olympic bombing, the Weathermen Underground of the Sixties, and myriads of other cases follow the same scenario. That is, they have an animus, a political or religious cause, they smoke a lot of marijuana or hashish, they developed warped ideas about the world, and ultimately they express their inner anger with acts of vengeance on society.

Then we come along and try to find motive for each instance. Unfortunately, we often don’t look beyond the motives and try understand the inner workings of the minds of the sociopaths. The question should be whether or not drugs warped their minds. And if so, which drug?

The constant variable is they are very often using marijuana. And pot is scientifically linked to all sorts of alterations of the brain. That we DO know. And the basis of this knowledge is exactly why we are concerned and wondering if for all these years, as if it all slipped by us, we have simply assumed marijuana has little ill effects, when in reality, for a subset of the general population of users, it might be at the very core of so, so much of this killing madness we are enduring.

Does that not at least alarm you? Shouldn’t society keep an open mind and take a closer look? Why assume anything until we have proof otherwise?

As neuroscience advances, some day, perhaps in about ten years at the conclusion of the ABCD study (undertaken by NIH), we will have the definitive answer to whether or not marijuana can induce the underlying psychosis that can in turn lead to murder. Plus we should find out if the massive amounts of marijuana used by McVeigh in prior years warped his brain to such a degree he felt justified in killing all those people, and that baby.

Has the world gone mad? I mean, here we have a mind-altering drug known to be linked to psychosis, we have myriads of examples of individuals using marijuana who do develop forms of mental derangement, and some of this group become homicidal.

The POSSIBILITY of the causal connection to this amazing correlation is plain as day, simply staring our society in the face.
Yet the reticence, the lack of interest, the unbelievable disregard given us for our concern, which really is such a simple concept, is remarkable. Our American society claims to be concerned about the human plight, the violence, and whatever it might take to save lives. So we worry about even the minutest little details, such as environmental issues, but yet we do not give a whit that mind altering drugs, specifically marijuana, might be at the core of many of these senseless killing rampages? Something is terribly askew.

It’s not like we are proclaiming unequivocally that marijuana CAUSES killing rampages, but we ARE suggesting there is a very remarkable link that deserves urgent attention. Explanations anybody out there? Where the heck is it?

But we are getting what is known as the ‘quiet treatment’. Deep down inside, many actually do understand this link to violent crime, yet they keep quiet because of their favoritism to marijuana. And this later group abounds in the media, in academia and in the entertainment world- place where ‘liberal’, open-minded thinkers SHOULD be concerned, should be asking the questions and at least wondering.

But they are not, we are being ignored, and shamefully so. I stand by the gallant efforts of Dr. Christine Miller. Pure fortitude. She does understand the issue at hand thoroughly. I hope she can get national attention whether it’s on television, radio, or testimony at congress. Wherever. She’s got the academic credentials, has insight, and pure guts since the opposition to our concerns is enormous. Plus she needs myriads of us behind her in full support. And we should be expressing our views, and our insight about this concept wherever possible, so she does not stand alone.

I should have mentioned at the outset that your lead article above summarizes in a nutshell precisely the issue at hand.

From my own rudimentary understanding, the brain is an extremely complex array of neurons that function as a variety of systems that govern the very nature of our existence. Neurotransmitters are the primary agent of communication between the neurons. The brain is like the computer and the mind is like the manifestation of its operation that results in our thoughts and behavior.

It’s all a very intricate and delicate instrument actually ( to borrow the words of Peter Hitchens). Psychotropic drugs, including marijuana, do some very odd things to the whole mental system. Each drug affects the brain in a different manner.

It stands to reason that if one introduces a foreign, toxic substance that interferes with the basic functions of the brain, not all outcomes will necessarily be benign. In fact, it’s amazing that the minds of most pot users, it appears, return to some state of what we consider normal.

Factors that will affect the outcomes of psychotropic drugs are the genes, health, environment, stress, anger, poverty, nutrition and so forth. Not everyone who uses marijuana will necessarily have an innate immunity for resistance from the harmful effects on the mind.

Plus age of the onset of usage is a big factor as well. Adolescents who indulge at early ages risk interfering with the brain’s development to full maturity- specifically the communication network between the nucleus accumbens (rational thought) and the amygdala (impulse).

And subsequently, they may be individuals with permanent inclinations to act on impulse rather than restrained reason. Which implies the possibility of senseless, violent outbursts later in life.

Anyway, that’s my take, and I thought this last point as a number “4)” could be added to your list as well.

Today’s revelations and reports further confirm that the latest terrorist suspect, Ansi Amri, was indeed heavily involved in drugs, as reported by both one of his brothers and his father.
According to Dr. Christine Miller, any of the drugs can lead to psychosis, yet cannabis by far steals the show. It is very likely in this case, as I see it, Amri was a habitual user of cannabis in one form or another, likely hashish in Tunisia and marijuana in Europe.
His father also mentioned Ansi Amri was very violent while taking drugs. The implications here further implicate psychotic episodes. Plus his frame of mind, his prison experience and associations, likely all primed him to be a jihadist candidate, or even a lone wolf who took up the cause on his own, because of his drug induced, deranged mind.
I think Western civilization needs to be careful, for it’s very possible we may initiate another major war in the Middle East over an accumulation of incidents like this. And it may be for all the wrong causes. That is at the core of this madness is extended (ie not necessarily while intoxicated) mental derangement caused by drugs. In many of these cases we may be fooling ourselves by concluding they are more acts of jihadism, whereas in reality we are dealing with mental illnesses in the name of radical Islam.
The analogous case in Nice, France last summer, by Mohamed Bhouhlel was also about psychotic episodes that coincided with the use of “very strong cannabis”.
It appears to me, these nutcases are not so much jihadists, if at all, but instead mentally ill drug addicts whose conditions eventually culminate in acts of extreme violence, as a form of vengeance on society to assuage their warped minds.

Further complicating this is that our left leaning national media is very pro marijuana, so there is a tremendous amount of bias and coverup from any kind of negative publicity.

A lot is being intentionally hidden I suspect. Otherwise, drug abuse and violent outbursts would be THE major, national talking point today.

Regarding this latest terror attack in Berlin and the suspect, Anis Amri, as predictable in like EVERY SINGLE TIME, I suspect a connection drugs at the outset. It always fits this pattern of drug use, which invariably implies at least the use of marijuana or hashish, then distorted outlooks and pent-up anger, eventually followed by violent outbursts as vengeance on society for whatever the reason.
When this happens with those of Middle Eastern background, we assume it’s jihadism. When it happens with Christians or others, we just assume those individuals simply “snapped” from anger and frustration for whatever reason that bothers them, whether it be anger at the US government, abortion doctors, etc. All the same process as I see it.
In the case of Amri, his background is sketchy, but already there is a past history of drug crimes, which certainly implies those involved in transactions or whatnot, are they themselves using the drugs too.

Now to be honest, this case in Turkey, of the security guard killing the Russian ambassador, is perplexing. Could it be drugs were not a part of this suspect’s past? It would be hard to believe he didn’t use cannabis in some form, yet there are no indications whatsoever as of yet. Still, I suspect the distortion of his mind derived from intense propaganda infused with cannabis use.

Wow! This is some of the most outlandish misinformation about marijuana I’ve seen since Reefer Madness. Are you sponsored by a tobacco, alcohol or pharmaceutical company? Sounds like you’re beholden to someone.

You are simply spewing negative propaganda with no scientific evidence to back your claims. I would assume this Website is somehow affiliated with police unions or pharmaceutical companies because they are the only ones with anything to gain From continued prohibition.

Absolutely not. If you read the articles on our website, you would know that we are skeptical of pharmaceutical solutions to anything. Many of our articles on subjects such as the Ketogenic Diet, MBSR, and EMDR suggest Holistic solutions. Marijuana is not holistic; it’s mind altering. We are very clear in not wanting something that causes mental illness–not for everyone but for a significant subset of the population.